Forget his red card three-quarters of the way through the final, awarded for a late challenge on Cafu, and reflect instead on his consistency in the rest of the tournament. Laurent Blanc alongside him was composed, but it was Desailly who gave them the requisite physical toughness.

Only Suker scored against France in open play in the Finals, and after Blanc had been sent off in that semi, Desailly even made Frank Leboeuf look good in the final. The only shame is that Ronaldo’s fit denied the world a clash between the best centre-forward and the best centre-back in the tournament.

FFT's resident conspiracy thoerist, Nick Harper, calculates exactly how the 2014 World Cup group stages would and should have panned out had the men in black been on the money. The sound you can hear is straws being clutched...